Reduction of Power Dissipation in Dynamic BiCMOS Logic Gates by Transistor Reordering

This paper explores the deterministic transistor reordering in low-voltage dynamic BiCMOS logic gates, for reducing the dynamic power dissipation. The constraints of load driving (discharging) capability and NPN turn-on delay for MOSFET reordered structures has been carefully considered. Simulations shows significant reduction in the dynamic power dissipation for the transistor reordered BiCMOS structures. The power-delay product figure-of-merit is found to be significantly enhanced without any associated silicon-area penalty. In order to experimentally verify the reduction in power dissipation, original and reordered structures were fabricated using the MOSIS 2mm N-well analog CMOS process which has a P-base layer for bipolar NPN option. Measured results shows a 20% reduction in the power dissipation for the transistor reordered structure, which is in close agreement with the simulation.